St. Maarten Beaches more user friendly after clean up

Director of the St. Maarten Archaeological Center Dr. Jay Haviser lifts a bag onto a scale so that its contents can be weighed after its contents were itemized. (Milton Pieters photo)

St. Maarten / By Milton G Pieters – Fewer volunteers from a variety of organizations collected a decreased amount of garbage at Saturday’s International Coastal cleanup at Mullet Bay and Simpson Bay Beach on Saturday. The local effort is coordinated by the St. Maarten Pride Foundation.

The fall off in collected garbage is a signal that littering habits are changing, but the foundation is convinced that there is still more room for improvement. The assembled volunteers worked at Mullet Bay and Simpson Bay from 7:00 a.m. They were supported by divers, who cleared up underwater debris.

“It’s been another great show by our community to come out once again to help to clean our beaches and that makes me happy. We have been doing it at Mullet Bay for a very long time and we have to maintain the consistency with the data we collect which is compared. We have always had a waste management issue here compared to Little Bay where they keep the beach clean,” Vice President of the St. Maarten Pride Foundation Rueben Thompson said.

Mullet Bay is also the spot for the cleanup because it is the only beach where it’s easy to facilitate dozens of cars and that has easy access.

Thompson also announced that even though a private company has been retained to keep the beach clean the foundation plans to put up garbage bins and notice boards in an effort to keep the beach clean.